Moviegoer’s love affair with musicals began the moment movies began to talk. When Al Jolsen’s character famously said, in what now has become a classic cinematic moment in 1929’s The Jazz Singer, “you ain’t heard nothing yet,” he had no idea how prescient he was. The new “talkies” proved to be the perfect union of music and theater. Songs and dance successfully covey the joy and sadness that viscerally connects with the audience
The early movie musical was uniquely American in its exuberance and optimism. And to this day, Hollywood musicals are audience pleasers, garnering multiple nominations and awards.
Hollywood took the Broadway musical and crafted its own version headed by creative teams with prodigious imagination and abilities. By the sheer size of a production, film requires more intense collaboration than a stage musical. Composers, actors, singers choreographers, costumers, set designers and directors
combine, with creative camera work, and the cinematic language of close-ups and long crane and tracking shots that distinguish film from the theater.
Blissfully, romantic and stylish, the Hollywood musical has stubbornly continued to exist and endure throughout the decades. Now over 100 years old; it may have altered its form and may move to a different beat, but it persists.
It is no real surprise that music anchored three of 2018’s most popular films – “A Star is Born,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Mary Poppins Returns”.
All four of the films we are presenting in this ’mini’ series are in the Library of Congress National Film Registry. They have a combined 21 Oscar Nominations with Best Picture wins for My Fair Lady and An American in Paris.
These movies, in particular, were always meant to be seen, with a group of people, in a darkened auditorium, on a big screen. Presenting movies on TV has always been a monetary consideration not an artistic one. Presenting movies on TV has always been a monetary consideration not an artistic one. Television broadcast didn’t officially start until 1945, ten years after Top Hat hit movie theaters. The first television broadcast of a Hollywood feature film was in 1956, half a decade after the release of Singing’ in the Rain and An American in Paris.
So put down your cell phone and enter the Magic Lantern’s time machine and allow us to take you back to experience and enjoy the song and dance of four of Hollywood’s greatest musicals.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – THURSDAY, JAN. 17 AT 4:30 & 7:00
In1929 Irving Thalberg’s, “The Broadway Melody”, where the song “Singing in the Rain” was first performed, catapulted the musical into the genre that audience clamored for. It was the first sound picture to win Best Picture Oscar.
The 1952 American musical is a brilliant satire on the early Hollywood Star System and the difficulties and major obstacles movie studios faced in converting to sound. Still, considered to be the best musical ever made it set the high bar of blending song, dance, comedy and romance.
The film was only a modest hit when it was released; however, it has since been accorded legendary status by contemporary critics, and is frequently regarded as the best film musical ever made, topping the AFI’s Greatest Movie Musicals list and is ranked as the fifth-greatest American motion picture of all time.
The musical-romantic comedy film, directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and a knoockout comic Performance by Jean Hagen. t offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with the three stars portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to “talkies”.
The title number, featuring a soaked but joyful Gene Kelly, is probably the the most iconic dance and song in an American musical, rivaling “We’re off to see the wizard” in “The Wizard of Oz.”
Nominated —Best Musical Score , Best Supporting Actress (Jean Hagen), British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Film
Directors Guild of America Best Director
Winner Golden Globe- Best Picture
MY FAIR LADY THUR. JAN.31 AT 4:00 & 7:15
One of the the best and most unlikely of musicals, adapted from the eminently popular British theater production starring Julie Andrews. Every single one of the songs is wonderful. They are literate and beloved; some romantic, some comic, some nonsensical, some surprisingly philosophical, a fusion of sophistication and wit
What distinguishes “My Fair Lady” above all is that it actually says something about the British class system and woman’s “place” in society. It is a film of pointed words, from a more innocent time, with unforgettable music and glorious images,
Academy Award Winner – Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director
Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction& Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Sound and
Best Music Adaptation
Academy Award Nominee Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing
TOP HAT THUR. FEB. 7 AT 4:30 & 7:00
An 83 year old screwball musical comedy and no one has said it better than legendary film critic Roger Ebert —
“There are two numbers in Top Hat where the dancing on the screen reaches such perfection as is attainable. They are by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for “Isn’t This a Lovely Day?” and “Cheek to Cheek.” Because Astaire believed that movie dance numbers should be shot in unbroken takes that ran as long as possible, what they perform is an achievement in endurance as well as artistry. At a point when many dancers would be gasping for breath, Astaire and Rogers are smiling easily, heedlessly. To watch them is to see hard work elevated to effortless joy: The work of two dancers who know they can do no better than this, and that no one else can do as well.
Because we are human, because we are bound by gravity and the limitations of our bodies, because we live in a world where the news is often bad and the prospects disturbing, there is a need for another world somewhere, a world where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers live.”
While Astaire got more recognition for his dancing skills — it is always good to remember what Ginger Rodgers has been quoted as saying “ that she did everything Astaire did and did it backwards and in high heels.”
Oscar Nominations — Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Dance Direction, Best Music, Best Original Song
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS WED MARCH 6 AT 4:30 & 7:00
In last Fall’s Film Festival we were privileged to show the recent Tony Award winning Broadway musical of An American in Paris to absolutely enthralled audiences. Many of whom asked if we could show the Oscar winning film upon which the stage show was based.
An American in Paris is a 1951 American musical film inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition “An American in Paris,” by George Gershwin. It stars Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, and Nina Foch. Set in Paris, directed by Vincente Minnelli, from a script by Alan Jay Lerner. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira.
The story of the film is interspersed with dance numbers choreographed by Gene Kelly and set to Gershwin’s music. Songs and music include “I Got Rhythm”, “I’ll Build A Stairway to Paradise”, “‘S-Wonderful”, and “Our Love Is Here to Stay”.
The closing dance number is one of the finest ever put upon the screen.
An American in Paris was an enormous success, garnering eight Academy Award nominations and winning six.
Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art & Set Decoration, Best Costume, Best Musical Score.
Oscar Nominee Best Director Best Film Editing
Golden Globes Winner -Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Golden Globe Nominee -+ Best Director , Best Actor
